The field of the disclosure relates generally to racks for use in housing revenue producing equipment, such as servers, and more specifically to integrated power racks having a side power sub-compartment that facilitates increased power transmission efficiency and increased space for revenue producing devices.
Large data processing centers (e.g., server farms) are used to perform data transactions such as, without limitation, storing, retrieving, and/or processing data, for companies and individuals all over the world. In particular, known data processing centers use computing devices, referred to herein as revenue producing devices, to perform data transactions on behalf of third parties in return for a fee. As the fee is typically based on the number of transactions performed, known data processing centers use large quantities of revenue producing devices to perform large quantities of data transactions.
However, large quantities of revenue producing devices require a significant amount of space. As such, known data processing centers use equipment racks to house and stack the revenue producing devices. Known equipment racks are typically box-shaped compartments that are, for example, about 7 feet in height, about 24 inches in width, and a variety of depths. The width dimension is specifically designed so that an entire row of racks fit on a standard 2×2 floor tile in a warehouse or office building. To facilitate interoperability amongst manufacturers, the majority of revenue producing devices manufactured for use within a rack are a predetermined standard size, referred to as a U (unit). A standard U is about 19 inches in width and 1.75 inches in height. Some revenue producing devices require multiple Us of space (e.g. 2U). Such devices have the same width (e.g., 19 inches) but the height is increased (e.g., doubled to 3.5 inches). Accordingly, in a typical rack, all of the revenue producing devices are about 19 inches in width, and positioned centrally within the rack. As known racks are about 24 inches in width, the 19 inch racks define gaps on either side that may be empty and/or used to run cables, such as data transmission cables, between the revenue producing devices.
Revenue producing devices may also require a significant amount of power to operate. In particular, many data processing centers operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week, with the revenue producing devices using constant power. Power distribution to the revenue producing devices is further complicated by the fact that revenue producing devices generally require low-voltage direct current (DC) power (e.g., 12-54 volts DC) to operate, while the power grid utilizes high-voltage alternating current (AC) power (e.g., 208/480 volts AC).
In some known data processing centers, the high-voltage AC power from the power grid is received by a main conversion hub that converts the high-voltage AC power to low-voltage DC power useable by the revenue producing devices. From the main conversion hub, the low-voltage DC power is routed to each rack and then to each revenue producing device. However, such systems are plagued by significant resistive power losses caused by transmitting the low-voltage DC power over long distances throughout the data processing center. Furthermore, such systems can be susceptible to widespread power failure when the main conversion hub fails.
Other known data processing centers use integrated power racks having power equipment (e.g., without limitation, uninterruptable power supplies (UPS), AC/DC power converters, transformers, filters, and/or other power devices) housed in the rack. For these data processing centers, the high-voltage AC power is routed to each rack, and the power equipment inside the rack generates the low-voltage DC power used by the revenue producing devices within that rack. As the high-voltage AC power is routed to each rack, transmission losses are reduced as compared with the low-voltage DC transmission of a central hub. However, known integrated power racks may sacrifice between 4 and 8 U worth of space at the base of the rack to accommodate the power conversion equipment. Accordingly, integrating the power conversion within the rack will reduce the amount of revenue producing devices stored within each rack, which reduces the number of data transactions that can be performed by the data processing center. In addition, routing high-voltage AC power to the power equipment at the base of the rack can create additional safety hazards that must be mitigated through the use of covers and other devices. With the power conversion equipment located at the base of the rack, the low-voltage DC power must be run through the majority of the height of the rack using DC rails/bus bars. Accordingly, known integrated power racks have relatively long and expensive DC rails/bus bars with high resistive power losses.